Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03027 on  1 October 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

I refer the member to the answer to S6W-02645 on 14 September 2021 which set out that the resourcing and performance of the planning system remain key priorities, and we recently recommenced work looking at increasing the financial resources available to planning authorities through changes to the planning fees regime. An updated work plan for the implementation of the Scottish Government’s planning reform programme, including work on planning fees and performance, will be published shortly.

The performance of the system is not the sole responsibility of planning authorities and everyone involved in planning must play their part in ensuring that the system functions effectively and efficiently. Increased fee income is not the sole solution to the resourcing issues faced by authorities. As a result, we are working with the RTPI, Heads of Planning Scotland and others to explore additional measures, including skills and capacity building.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

I welcome the efforts of Plus Perth, Dundee Healthy Minds Network, Angus Voice and the Tayside Independent Inquiry Stakeholder Participation Group in producing this survey and report. I recognise the value that it has provided to David Strang in informing his progress report on Tayside's mental health services which was published in July. I met with representatives of the Stakeholder Participation Group to hear more about their experiences and recommendations for Tayside Mental Health Services in September and have made clear to Tayside partners that the voices of lived and living experience on mental health services in Tayside is critical going forward.

The Scottish Government is working to establish independent scrutiny of Tayside’s Mental Health Services, an action that is strongly supported by the survey report.

On 8 January 2020, Mr Stewart, the then Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning, emphasised the importance of the safety of visitors, hosts, neighbours and local residents in his statement to the Scottish Parliament. This was the rationale for introducing the policy and that remains the case. It has also always been the intention to give local authorities further powers under the licensing scheme to tackle other issues arising from short-term lets.

Our licensing scheme proposals deliver national consistency on safety standards, and autonomy for local authorities to add further conditions in response to local needs and concerns.

We will explore the possibility of levying a higher poundage on properties where the owner is registered in a tax haven, as well as tackling other known tax avoidance tactics using anti-avoidance powers provided by the Non-Domestic Rates (Scotland) Act 2020.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Whilst this is primarily an operational matter for the SPS, the SPS and Scottish Government have been in communication regarding the reported tampering of mobile phones used by individuals in custody and security measures in place. A solution was identified with the provider in relation to the concern of illicit SIM cards being used in prison issued mobile phones and it is currently being implemented across the prison estate. This solution enables the SPS to blacklist handsets on various network providers rendering the handsets unusable with a non-prison issued SIM. The security measures in place will continue to be monitored by the SPS.

The Scottish Government recognises that long waits are unacceptable, and remains committed to meeting the standard that 90% of patients begin treatment within 18 weeks of referral.

We have asked all Boards, including NHS Grampian, to set out their plans and trajectories for meeting the waiting times standards and clearing backlogs by the end of March 2023. To support this, we have already allocated £5m from the Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund, for the first year of clearing waiting list backlogs in Psychological Therapies. NHS Grampian has received £490,666 from this fund.

Nationally, we are starting to see this investment reflected in improved Psychological Therapies waiting times performance, and a decrease in the number of people waiting longest. We will continue to work closely with individual Health Boards to monitor and drive performance in mental health waiting times across Scotland.

The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 sets out six outcomes to which a future National Planning Framework (NPF) should work towards, including securing positive effects for biodiversity, and we are developing new proposals which deliver positive outcomes for biodiversity from development without the need for overly complex metrics.

We will lay a draft NPF4 in the Scottish Parliament this autumn and will carry out extensive public consultation at the same time. We anticipate producing a final version of NPF4 for approval and adoption around spring 2022.

Our proposed licensing scheme will assist in ensuring that short-term lets are safe and used for lawful purposes. Police Scotland is represented on the Short Term Lets Stakeholder Working Group and has expressed concern about some short-term lets being used for criminal purposes. Residents and community groups have also raised concerns with the Scottish Government.

On 13 September, we announced £300,000 of support for the 16th conference of youth—COY16—the UN’s official youth event for COP26. For the first time, five young people from Scotland will join participants from around the world and will help to shape the conference’s statement. We also support the Young Scot-led Scottish youth climate programme, which enables Scottish children and young people to host a climate youth summit ahead of COP26 to design the legacy that they want from the conference and to act as local champions across the country.